"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with
child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." - Isaiah 7:14
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Hello all and I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas eve,
My journal entry is in gold today as we celebrate the arrival of our ultimate gift.
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Prelude:
I wonder, have you all seen MASH? There is an episode called, "Death Takes A Holiday." It combines all the aspects of the nativity of Christ, scrooge, along with remembering that Christmas is a time of renewal.
The story begins with all of the MASH personnel receiving their gifts from home only to be notified by Klinger that the food that they ordered for their holiday party with the Korean children would not come. So in the spirit of giving, the MASH personnel gave their food from home, however Major Winchester only gave over a small can of sardines despite getting 4 large packages from home (hence the Ebenezer Scrooge reference).
Later in the episode, he takes the chocolate and other items of note to a Korean orphanage, the man who ran the orphanage happily accepted the gift. Winchester said that the gift must remain: "anonymous" as it was an old family tradition.
The next day was Christmas and everyone was ready for the festivities to begin. However, a soldier was brought in from the field who was allegedly left out in the cold. Major Houlihan rushed to the soldier to check him. As BJ and Hawkeye were readying themselves for the party, they were called upon by Houlihan to check the soldier. They set up the operating room for him and rushed him in.
During the surgery, Houlihan said it was no use and they would have to just let him go. But BJ had another idea that Houlihan initially objected to but agreed to because she felt the same way BJ did about keeping him alive long enough to not have the soldier's kids remember Christmas as, "the day their daddy died."
Meanwhile, everyone was having fun at the holiday party except for Winchester because he was being a total scrooge about the can of sardines he gave over. Then Winchester was notified that his candy shipment to the orphanage was sold to the black market by the owner. He took the owner and angrily demanded that he get the candy back. Klinger was on the other hand listening in. The man said he couldn't because the money was gone. He pleaded forgiveness but he emphasized that it would've brought great joy to the children for a few moments but... what he sold it for was enough rice and cabbage to feed the children for a full month.
Winchester realized what the man had did was completely unselfish and then said: "It's not appropriate to give one dessert when he hasn't had dinner." He was incredibly distraught about his selfishness and retired to his tent.
Meanwhile, back in the operating room, Hawkeye, BJ, Houlihan were doing the best they could to keep the man alive past Christmas. Father Mulcahy joined the group after being alerted by Colonel Potter about the man's moribund condition.
Klinger, who overheard that spat, brought dinner to Winchester and claimed that the source of the dinner was to remain "anonymous" as it was an "old family tradition." Winchester remembered what he had said to the owner of the orphanage. He turned to Klinger and said: "Thank you, Max." Then Klinger replied with, "Merry Christmas... Charles."
Back in the operating room, it was 11:30pm, and they were incredibly close to delaying his death long enough to go past Christmas. However, the soldier's pulse was lost and BJ demanded more surgery but Hawkeye said: "No... It's over, let's let him rest." Houlihan said when it came to death... there was no band, no nothing... She worked on getting the certificate of death but then Hawkeye came up with a brainstorm to fix the situation. He saw the clock, opened it, push the big hand past 12 and said: "Look he made it... Time of death, 12:05, December 26." Houlihan didn't like the idea of "falsifying the record" however Mulcahy calmed her saying: "Christmas should be thought of as a time of birth."
As they came out knowing they missed the Christmas party for the children, Colonel Potter dressed as Santa said they were "good little boys and girls." He had a gift for them. A Korean boy held up a plate and said: "Fudge," Potter said it was the last four piece. Each one took a piece and BJ said: "Merry Christmas."
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The ultimate gift we receive at Christmas time is a very special gift and it comes from one source, the Lord and most high above.
This gift is in our possession every Christmas and stays with us throughout the year.
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It's the start of the liturgical year and its the same message every year... the same message... Mary and Joseph, No room at the inn, the virgin birth.. yeah we get that... but isn't it important that we hear this message: The answer is a resounding YES.
People, whether you know it or not, this is the most important message of the year, and its message reaches to all Christians of the world.
It's the greatest news next to Easter and we will get to that next message as spring comes along.
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People, don't sit there like bumps on a log during the very long night... Get up and go to a candlelight service, it doesn't matter what denomination you are, just go there, and be apart of a road to Christ's birth because there would be no Christmas without Christ in it.
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Enjoy everything tonight, family, friends, drinks, food, egg nog, cookies, you name it. But remember, Christ has a very huge part in Christmas and you should be quite thankful for such.
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Thank you to all my friends and family this Christmas season. Remember you and yours this holiday.
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